PAST
exhibitionS
Exhibition Dates
OCTOBER 4 - NOVEMBER 8, 2008
Opening Reception
Saturday, October 4, 2008
from 3:00 - 6:00 pm
Gallery Hours
Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5:30 p.m.
Open until 7:30 p.m. on first Thursday of the month
FEATURED ARTISTS
PETER FORAKIS
Timeless
Geometry: The Art of Peter Forakis
Sculpture
LEO VALLEDOR
Between Sound & Space: The Paintings of Leo Valledor
(view
art in exhibition)
Peter Forakis’ sculpture is grounded in a remarkable intuitive
understanding of geometry. During the 1960s and 1970s, his work
was considered one of the most original and cutting edge.
A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute (1957), Peter Forakis
began producing painting and sculpture in the 1950’s. An early
member of the legendary Six Gallery in San Francisco, he participated
in three annual exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art.
Moving to New York in 1958, he was a founding member of the Park
Place Group. Forakis showed in several landmark sculpture exhibitions
including the Jewish Museum’s (New York) 1966 Primary Structures,
which established the beginnings of what would be later defined
as “Minimalism”); the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts
1967 American Sculpture of the Sixties; and the 1978 Sculpture Now,
Inc. show in New York.
Forakis has taught at prestigious schools including the Brooklyn
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Cooper Union, New York, School
of the Visual Arts, Windham College and the University of Berkeley.
His work is in the collections of Walker Art Center, The Stamford
Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Denver Art Museum,
The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum, and the Oakland
Museum, among others. He lives and works in Petaluma, California.
(view
art in exhibition)
This is the second solo exhibition of Leo Valledor at Togonon Gallery.
Valledor adapted minimalism very early on in San Francisco when
the local San Francisco art scene was still steeped in Abstract
Expressionism during the mid 1950’s. He was invited to join
the Six Gallery in 1954 and exhibited there and at the Dilexi gallery
in 1959. Moving to New York in the 1960’s he continued to
create his abstract work and was at the vortex of art activities
as a founding member of the Park Place Group exhibiting with Sol
LeWitt, Robert Smithson, Mark di Suvero, Robert Grosvenor and Peter
Forakis among others. Returning to San Francisco in 1968, Valledor
started his East-West series, which were featured in solo shows
at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1971) and at the de Young
Museum (1974) and the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art
(1976). Valledor was identified as part of a group of influential
artists in Henry Hopkin’s (former SFMOMA director) book 50
West Coast Artists. Leo Valledor’s art most recently became
part of the National Gallery collection. He is also in the collections
of the San Francisco de Young, Oakland Museum, Seattle Museum, Philadelphia
Fine Art Museum, Allentown Museum, Yale Museum, and the Crocker
Museum. In 2008, the Judith Rothschild Foundation awarded the Valledor
Estate a grant to further document Leo Valledor’s work.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
DAVID JOHNSON
San Francisco Photographer
Togonon Gallery is pleased to represent David
Johnson, graduate from the inaugural Photography class at the California
School of Fine Art developed by Ansel Adams and Minor White.
Since moving to San Francisco from Florida in 1946, Johnson has
meticulously documented his adopted city. His photographs appeared in
the Oakland Museum of California’s “Half Past Autumn” exhibition with
the late Gordon Parks. David Johnson’s work is also featured in KQED’s
Documentary, “The Fillmore” tracing the history of the vibrant and rich
images of African American’s in San Francisco. Other examples appear
the book “Harlem of the West”, chronicling the Jazz legacy by Elizabeth
Pepin and Lewis Watts.
David Johnson’s body of work includes the popular Fillmore
Jazz series and his student work reminiscent of Ansel Adams to his
personal quest to document the daily activities of ordinary residents
from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. African-American
by descent, this pioneer fine art photographer had unprecedented
access to the community, resulting in an insider’s view of
social, economic and political life which always rendered with genuine
respect. This Dignity series includes the images from the Civil
Rights movement in San Francisco, small business owners, young boys
in the poor neighborhoods of San Francisco and Watts.
His black and white silver gelatin prints are available for view
at Togonon Gallery in limited editions.
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